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Lightning Assign Gage Goncalves To AHL

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Gage Goncalves’ first NHL stint of the season was a short-lived one.  The Lightning announced today that they’ve reassigned the forward to AHL Syracuse.

The 23-year-old was recalled earlier this week and got into two games with Tampa Bay.  He was held off the scoresheet in those outings while logging a little over ten minutes per game.  Goncalves had a big year offensively with the Crunch last season, collecting 58 points in 69 games and was off to a good start prior to his recall this year, notching four assists and four appearances thus far.

While Goncalves was recalled to take Brayden Point’s spot in the lineup due to his lower-body injury, this assignment shouldn’t be interpreted as Point being ready to return yet; he didn’t participate in practice today.  However, Tampa Bay is off until Thursday so this assignment will free up a bit more cap space at a minimum while giving Goncalves a chance to play with the Crunch.  If Point isn’t ready to return by Thursday’s game, Goncalves will probably be promoted once again.

Islanders’ Mike Reilly Out Indefinitely With Upper-Body Injury

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New York Islanders’ defenseman Mike Reilly has been announced as out indefinitely with an upper-body injury per Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News. Reilly has been out since hitting his head in the team’s November 1st win over the Buffalo Sabres. He was initially dubbed day-to-day in the wake of the injury, but will now be out for the foreseeable future with what’s been dubbed a concussion.

Reilly’s absence leaves a clear hole in the New York lineup. While his minutes have been relatively capped, he’s served as a go-to depth option since being acquired off waivers from the Florida Panthers last summer. He landed with the Islanders when they needed him most – square in the middle of injuries to Adam Pelech, Sebastian Aho, and Ryan Pulock. Those absences paved the way for Reilly to average just over 17 minutes of ice time through 59 games with New York. He made good work of the role, passing the 20-point mark (24) for just the second time in his 10-year career. But both his role and his scoring have dried up this year, with Reilly averaging 15:45 in ice time and yet to score through 11 games this season.

New York is also missing Adam Pelech and Alexander Romanov – effectively depleting the entirety of their blue-line’s left-hand side. The team’s seventh-defenseman, Dennis Cholowski, joined call-up Samuel Bolduc in trying to mend the emptied depth chart – but neither proved very reliable. That led New York to recall rookie Isaiah George, who’s looked far more the part of the top-end defender that the Islanders are missing. George has averaged just under 20 minutes of ice time through his first two career games, blocking four shots and impressively handling the pace of NHL defense. He’s yet to score the first point of his career, but should continue as a strong member of the Islanders’ top-four while they wait for their defense to return to health. The Islanders have also been tied to rumors around left-defenders on the trade or waiver market, and may be quick to replace George if he falters in a continued role.

Romanov also remains out day-to-day with an upper-body injury, per Andrew Gross of Newsday Sports.

Poll: Who Will Win The 2025 Jack Adams Award?

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Of all of the trophies in hockey, the Jack Adams Award has become the most debated. Meant to award the coach determined to have most contributed to their team’s success, the trophy has instead become a way to award coaches that tally extended win-streaks, resilient comebacks, or unexpected runs to the postseason. Recent winners include Vancouver’s Rick Tocchet, Boston’s Jim Montgomery, and now-replaced Calgary head coach Darryl Sutter. All three kicked off their award-winning year with hot starts in the first two months, making now a great time to check in on this year’s early favorites.

The easy early choice has to be Winnipeg Jets head coach Scott Arniel, who’s inspired an incredible 13-1-0 record to start the new year. Arniel was promoted to replace Rick Bowness full-time this summer, after covering for the 800-game pro coach at multiple points last season. The hire was hotly debated at the time, with Jets fans split between whether Arniel’s role as the team’s penalty-kill coach would push slow-paced defense onto a roster that clearly needed to lean into fast-paced offense. But that hasn’t proven a worry on the ice, with Winnipeg’s 63 goals and +11 goal-differential both proudly leading the league. That’s been inspired by the usual suspects playing well – with Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele, Nikolaj Ehlers, and Josh Morrissey rightfully leading the team in scoring. But the depth of production is perhaps the biggest testament to Arniel’s impact. Winnipeg has 10 players with at least 10 points, including Cole Perfetti and Mason Appleton – who both struggled to find their scoring consistency under Bowness. Arniel’s Jets also boast the best power-play in the league (42.1 percent) and a league-average penalty-kill (80 percent success).

Arniel headlines a long list of first-year head coaches finding immediate success. John Hynes has led his Minnesota Wild to a second-place 10-2-2 record, and Sheldon Keefe has made the New Jersey Devils the playoff-favorites that many expected them to be last year. But it’s the mentality shift of Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube that seems to be making the biggest ripples in a new setting. The hard-nosed former pro has led a defensive charge in Toronto, with the team allowing their fewest goals-against per-game since 2020-21 under Berube’s reign. That’s helped along by summer additions like Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, but the team as a whole has shifted towards a grittier, dump-and-chase style. The downside of that shift has been Toronto’s drop from averaging 3.63 goals-per-game last year, to just 3.07 this year – though the team has still managed a hardy 8-5-2 record through their first 15 games. Berube may not be inspiring as much as his other first-year peers, but the culture shift he’s instilled could make him a strong Jack Adams candidate if the Leafs find another layer.

There’s also Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery, who won a tight race for the Eastern Conference’s second Wild Card last season. And while Washington didn’t inspire much in the postseason – getting swept by the New York Rangers – they’ve clearly used the appearance as motivation in the new year. Washington is red-hot, sat with a 9-4-0 record and ranked in the top 10 of goals-for, goals-against, and penalty kill percentage. The Capitals’ season is undeniably headlined by Alexander Ovechkin’s chase for Wayne Gretzky’s scoring record – only 34 goals away! – but Carbery has pulled together a quietly-thriving team in the backdrop. It’s a record more inspired by emerging lineup pillars – like Dylan Strome, Aliaksei Protas, and Connor McMichael – more than being led by individual stars. The Capitals still need to squeeze more out of new additions like Andrew Mangiapane and Pierre-Luc Dubois. A spark in net wouldn’t hurt either. But the momentum that Carbery has built up in his second year has Washington looking much more the part of a strong playoff hopeful than they did last year, even despite an injured blue-line.

The NHL season has hardly begun, but plenty of new and inexperienced head coaches have found their groove right out of the gates. Their momentum could spell out the Jack Adams finalists far ahead of an official announcement, or they could soon be uprooted by settled veterans like Florida’s Paul Maurice, Carolina’s Rod Brind’Amour, or Vegas’ Bruce Cassidy. All have started strong, providing plenty of options for who could run away with this year’s Jack Adams Award. Who do you think will keep their hot start going and take home this year’s ’Coach of the Year’ trophy?

Mobile users, click here to vote.

Pacific Notes: Kaliyev, Gibson, Walman, Stone

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Kings winger Arthur Kaliyev ramped up his participation in practice today, albeit in a non-contact jersey, relays Andrew Knoll of the LA Daily News.  The 23-year-old has yet to play this season after suffering a broken collarbone during a scrimmage in the opening days of training camp.  Kaliyev is coming off a rough year that saw him record just seven goals and eight assists in 51 games after putting up 27 and 28 points in his previous two years.  While he requested a trade, one never came to fruition over the summer and the sides settled on a one-year, $825K deal just before camp; he was injured just a few days later.  Originally targeted for a late-November/early-December return, it’s possible that Kaliyev is a little ahead of schedule in terms of his recovery.

More from the Pacific:

  • The Ducks have activated goaltender John Gibson from injured reserve, relays Derek Lee of The Hockey News (Twitter link). The 31-year-old has yet to play this season after undergoing an appendectomy during the preseason.  After being a top performer early in his career, Gibson has struggled considerably in recent years and posted a 3.54 GAA with a career-low .888 SV% in 46 games last season.  Anaheim now has three goalies on its active roster with the others being Lukas Dostal and James Reimer.  Reimer was claimed off waivers last month and unless the Ducks want to carry three goalies for a while, he could be back on the wire soon.
  • While he missed Thursday’s game due to an upper-body injury, Sharks defenseman Jake Walman is with the team on their road trip that begins on Sunday, relays Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News. There has been some confusion about whether Walman’s absence was initially injury-related or just being a scratch but it’s clear he isn’t fully healthy at the time being.  The 28-year-old was acquired in a cap-clearing move from Detroit over the offseason and has been a big boost to San Jose’s back end.  Through 13 games this season, he leads their blueline group with nine points (including eight assists, one off his career-high) and an ATOI of 22:42 so whenever he’s cleared to return, he’ll be a welcome addition to their lineup.
  • The Golden Knights announced (Twitter link) that winger Mark Stone is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. The injury explains the earlier recall of winger Jonas Rondbjerg from the minors.  Stone is off to a terrific start to the season, recording six goals and 15 assists in 13 games so far to lead the team in scoring while logging over 19 minutes a night so his absence will certainly be felt.

Submit Your Questions For The #PHRMailbag

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There’s already been a bit of early-season trade action with a bevy of unexpected hot starts and disappointing runs. With every team now across the 10-game mark in their schedule, we’ll open the space to answer questions from our readers in the mailbag.

The last edition was divided into two parts. The first discussed a potential solution to the Oilers’ Darnell Nurse problem, expectations for the Maple Leafs, and challenges for the Rangers to stay atop the Metropolitan Division. The second covered the beginnings of a likely lengthy Connor Bedard/Matvei Michkov rivalry and the first player to land a $20MM AAV, among other topics.

You can submit a question by using #PHRMailbag on X or by leaving a comment down below. The mailbag will run on the weekend.

Golden Knights Recall Jonas Rondbjerg, Place Nic Hague On IR

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The Golden Knights have placed defenseman Nic Hague on IR, per the NHL’s media site.  With the open roster spot, the team announced (Twitter link) that forward Jonas Rondbjerg has been recalled from AHL Henderson.

Rondbjerg is no stranger to the NHL-AHL shuttle in recent years as he has played in at least 13 games with Vegas in each of the last three seasons.  In 2023-24, the 25-year-old got into 20 games with the Golden Knights, recording two goals and an assist while averaging 11:17 per night.  Overall, he has three goals and seven helpers in 63 career appearances in Vegas.

While he hasn’t been a big point producer in the NHL, Rondbjerg has been much more effective offensively in the minors.  Last season, he had nine goals and 16 assists in 48 appearances with the Silver Knights and is off to a decent start this year with two goals and two assists in his first seven games, helping to earn this recall.

As for Hague, the 25-year-old last played on Saturday and has been out with an undisclosed injury since then.  He’s off to a quiet start to his season, notching just one goal in nine games along with 12 blocks and 13 hits while averaging just over 16 minutes a night, a number that skews a bit low due to missing time due to injury in two straight games.  Assuming they back-dated the IR placement to Sunday, Hague will be available to return as soon as Monday against Seattle.

While Rondbjerg’s cap hit actually comes in slightly below the league minimum salary, his recall does push Vegas into using LTIR, meaning they’ll stop banking cap space for the time being.  Accordingly, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him at least papered back to the minors on Saturday to get them back under the $88MM Upper Limit again.

Kraken Acquire Daniel Sprong From Canucks

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It appears Daniel Sprong will be returning to a team he’s already familiar with.  The Canucks announced that they have dealt the winger to the Kraken in exchange for future considerations.

Sprong has been a productive player over the last couple of seasons but it hasn’t resulted in him getting much stability.  In 2022-23, he had a breakout year in Seattle, notching 21 goals and 25 assists in 66 games.  Before that, his previous career-high in points was 23.  However, despite only being owed a qualifying offer of $787.5K, Seattle opted to non-tender him, getting out of a potential arbitration hearing in the process.

Still, the 27-year-old was able to do relatively well in free agency in 2023, landing a one-year, $2MM deal with Detroit.  He showed that his production the year before wasn’t a one-off, as he collected 18 goals and 25 assists in 76 games while only averaging 12 minutes a night of action.  But once again, he was non-tendered as the Red Wings opted to avoid the risk of arbitration as well.

Unfortunately for Sprong, the market wasn’t as strong this time around.  It took nearly three weeks into free agency before he found a contract when Vancouver signed him to a one-year, $975K contract, cutting his pay from the year before by more than half in the process.  It looked like a relatively shrewd pickup for a Canucks franchise that didn’t have much salary cap flexibility but wanted to add more offensive depth.

But things didn’t go as planned.  Sprong has been healthy scratched three times already this season and when he has played, he hasn’t been able to produce at the same level, tallying just one goal and two assists in nine games while averaging 11:39 per night.  Clearly, Vancouver had seen enough and decided the time was right to move on.

The Canucks are expected to welcome Dakota Joshua back to the lineup soon and it appears that this move will open up the roster spot to do so.  In the meantime, they’ve upped their cap space to over $1.9MM per PuckPedia, giving them much more in-season flexibility than they’ve had in recent years.  As for Seattle, they’re presently in LTIR and this move will push them a little deeper into it.  However, they’re still close enough to the $88MM cap that it shouldn’t be too difficult to get back under that amount when Vince Dunn is able to return.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the trade.

New Jersey Devils Recall Nick DeSimone

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The New Jersey Devils had an opening on defense after reassigning Simon Nemec to the AHL’s Utica Comets yesterday. To fill that opening, the organization recalled defenseman Nick DeSimone.

DeSimone has suited up in NHL games for the last two years despite spending the past eight seasons in professional hockey. After signing as a collegiate free agent out of Union College, he began his professional career in the San Jose Sharks system.

His contractual rights bounced from the Vegas Golden Knights to the New York Rangers organization before finally landing as an unrestricted free agent with the Calgary Flames. It was with the Flames that DeSimone ultimately made his NHL debut securing four games played in the 2022-23 season.

Last year garnered the most playing time for DeSimone at the NHL level as he managed one goal and five points in 23 games with the Flames. He became a piece in Calgary’s blue-line exodus from last year after being claimed off waivers by the Devils in late January.

DeSimone scored one goal and two points with the Devils in 11 games down the stretch. His play for the team turned into a one-year, $775K extension on June 24, 2024.

Unfortunately for DeSimone, he’s more of a roster filler at this point with the Devils. He’s off to a dismal start in the AHL this year with two assists in nine games and a -10 rating. Even if New Jersey experiences on the blue line, they’ll likely make a call-up rather than give DeSimone meaningful minutes.

Kings’ Tanner Jeannot Receives Three Game Suspension

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5:43 PM: The Department of Player Safety announced Jeannot has been suspended three games for the hit on Boeser last night.

10:30 AM: The NHL Department of Player Safety announced today that Kings winger Tanner Jeannot will have a hearing today for an illegal check to the head against Canucks star Brock Boeser. It’s not an in-person hearing, so his pending suspension will be five games or less.

The incident occurred midway through the first period of last night’s 4-2 road win for Vancouver. Immediately after Boeser completed a neutral-zone pass, Jeannot attempted to lay an open-ice hit on Boeser while crossing the other direction. He led with his shoulder, making contact with Boeser’s head and knocking him out of the game (video via Lachlan Irvine of Canucks Army). Officials assessed Jeannot a match penalty on the play, initiating an automatic league review for supplemental discipline.

Vancouver has yet to give Boeser an injury designation, so he remains uncertain for tomorrow’s game against the Oilers. Hearings that do not result in suspensions are rare, so the Kings are undoubtedly preparing to be without Jeannot tomorrow against the Blue Jackets and potentially for a couple of more games afterward. The heavy-hitting power forward has never been suspended in his 242-game NHL career, but he has been fined once before for kneeing Senators captain Brady Tkachuk in March 2022.

The 15 PIMs assessed to Jeannot last night gave him 36 on the season, the most in the league. Through his first 15 games as a King, the 27-year-old has struggled to produce offensively, with just a goal and an assist while averaging 10:28 per game. So far, it’s not the resurgence L.A. hoped for when they parted ways with a pair of draft picks to acquire him from the Lightning in June. He hasn’t been a legitimate top-nine player offensively since his rookie season when he potted 24 goals and 41 points in 81 games for the Predators in 2021-22.

Three years later, it’s become clear that his play that season was more of a flash in the pan than anything else. In 146 games since for the Preds, Bolts and Kings, he has just 14 goals and 34 points with a -18 rating. Upon completing the two-year, $5.33MM deal he signed with Tampa Bay in 2023, he’ll be an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Penguins Activate Bryan Rust, Place Cody Glass On IR

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The Pittsburgh Penguins will have one forward in the lineup tonight exchanged for another. The organization announced it has activated Bryan Rust off the injured reserve while placing Cody Glass on it.

Rust has been dealing with a lower-body injury for the last little while, and it’s related to the injury that kept him out of the lineup at the beginning of the season. The veteran didn’t make his 2024-25 debut until October 12th and managed three goals and four points in eight contests before re-aggravating the lower-body concern on October 26th.

The Penguins expect Rust to serve in a top-six role this evening and could even rediscover his role on the team’s first line. He’s typically been Sidney Crosby’s linemate, but the team may opt for Rust to play on the second line in light of Evgeni Malkin and Rickard Rakell playing on the captain’s wings.

It’s not all good news on the injury front in Pittsburgh. Glass, who’s nursing an upper-body injury, lands on the injured reserve for the first time this season.

After leaving the contest without a return, Glass was seemingly injured in last night’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes. In his first year with the franchise, he’s played in 14 contests for the Penguins but has only collected four assists while posting a -7 rating.

He’s primarily played in a bottom-six role averaging 11:48 of ice time per game so there shouldn’t be too much roster maneuvering for Pittsburgh. Still, with the team sitting toward the bottom of the Metropolitan Division standings, it’s more insult to injury for Pittsburgh.

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